Pladz+fuentes+moon+pics

Earth’s Moon

When you go out in the night the brightest object in the sky is the moon. It is Earth’s only natural satellite. The moon has been orbiting Earth ever since the solar system formed. Many people have questions about the moon like, how did it get there? Or why some nights we can’t see it? If you want to know the answers, read this. **How the Moon Was Formed** The Capture Theory says that the moon was formed somewhere else in the solar system and Earth’s gravity pulled it so it would orbit around Earth. The Fission Theory is that the moon was part of Earth and some how it separated from the Earth early in the solar system’s history. This is possible because the moons composition resembles to Earth’s mantle, but if it were true the moon should have fossil fuel, which is what’s left when lava cools down. The moon doesn’t have any. Therefore it is not likely to be true. The Condensation Theory says that the moon was formed from a nebula when the solar system was forming and then captured by Earth’s gravitational pull and started to orbit. The theory most scientists believe in is the Giant Impact Theory. This theory says that a Mars sized planet called Thea crashed into Earth. Thea was destroyed and Earth survived. The impact was so great that rock went flying out and started orbiting Earth because of its gravitational pull and gravity pulled those rocks together and formed the moon, so the moon has been orbiting since then. **Expeditions to the moon**  40 years ago men began to leave Earth to go to the moon for the first time. From 1968 to 1972 Nasa’s men began to test out the new spacecraft for it to happen. 1961 was the year Apollo started. John F. Kennedy was the president and his goal was to send USA astronomers to the moon. 8 years later Lance Armstrong landed and said “this is one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind” he said this live broadcast at BBC. That meant a lot because nobody ever thought they would make it.    When they came back they brought samples of rock to tell what it was made of. They knew that the moon had many craters that many meteorites had hit it. It also has less gravity then earth so the Apollo men had trouble adapting to the gravity but they had a blast. If you could jump 2 feet on earth you could jump 12 feet on the moon. But when they got back they had trouble standing and had headache because it is a harder pull from earth.  **Moons body**  The moon is made of rock. It is much less massive than the Earth. The average distance from Earth to the moon is 238,897 miles. But the distance is growing extremely slow at a rate of 1.5 inches a year. The moon is 4.6 billion years old. It has no life of any kind. It also doesn’t have a substantial atmosphere but some gases surround the moon. In 2009 the US Probe figured out the there was water near the South Pole along time ago. This means that it had water but something caused it to evaporate. The moon has a gravitational pull on Earth which is why we have low tides and high tide.  The moon orbits around the Earth. In the night we see the moon to be bright because it reflects light from the sun but it doesn’t give off light of its own. The moon has many phases( how it look to us ) the phases are waxing crescent, waning, first quarter, Third quarter, waxing gibbous, waning gibbous, new moon, full. These phases happend because of how the sun hit the moon. When it’s a new moon we don’t see it because the sun is hitting the moon on the other side that we can’t see and so on.  The moon has been studies for a long time. It like are back yard we no a lot about it and very few questions. We been on the moon actual men have walked on the moon. It will be forever I are hearts but weaved moved on. Now we are putting more money in exploring mars and beyond.    Bibliography Peter Bond Guide to Space PK Publishing ink 1999 New York, New York Http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question38.html Http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/ Http://www.worldbookonline.com/advance/article?ed=ar370060&st=earth=moon